HalfBlood Halloween
by ArtemisFrimm
Summary: Just a series of one and possibly more shots counting down to my favorite holiday. Full summaries per one-shot inside... Ratings will be in summary as well but T just for a general.
1. Bwahaha

**K, so I wanted to do a bunch of Halloween one-shots to count down to Halloween so here is the first instalment.**

**Summary: It's Halloween at Camp Half-Blood and Travis Stoll is telling his scary story that may be more that just fiction... a few adultish comments but nothing very bad. Hope you enjoy!**

**~Artemis Frimm (bwahahahaha!)  
**

* * *

It was Halloween. Down in the city, children were trick-or-treating, teenagers were going to haunted houses or parties, and the campers at camp Half-Blood were telling ghost stories.

Everyone at camp loved Halloween because of all of the traditions it brought. During the day, campers would carve pumpkins and decorate their cabins, then after dinner, they would have a haunted hike in the woods, courtesy of the nymphs and satyrs. After the hike, everyone would light their pumpkins and gather around the campfire and tell scary stories and eat s'mores.

"- then, the girl entered her cabin to find the giant tarantula in its massive web. It lunged forward, she tried to run, but the spider was to fast. The girl was never seen again. Apparently, the spider still roams around this very camp, looking for its next victim." Annabeth finished her story with a look of satisfaction on her face. The younger campers were cowering and had frightened looks on their faces, but Travis Stoll on the other hand just looked bored. He let out a loud overly exaggerated yawn.

Annabeth frowned at him, "What was that for?"

Travis shrugged, "Your story was very lacking in the basic elements that make a truly exceptional scary story."

"For example?"

Travis sighed, "For example, you didn't even name the main character. You could have used a real demigod name or something instead of just calling her 'the girl' its simple things like that, Annabeth that make a truly terrifying story. Your ending was also very inconclusive. I mean, wouldn't people check in her cabin and notice a giant spider web. Also it's a known fact that you're scared of spiders, so it makes in sound weak."

Annabeth scowled at him, "Oh, well I guess you think you can make up a better scary story then?"

Travis shook his head, "I know for a fact that I could, because my story is terrifyingly true."

Annabeth crossed her arms over her chest, "Ok then, let's here it."

"It started when Hermes fell in love. He was walking through a forest on Halloween eve one year when he came across a startlingly beautiful woman. She had shiny raven hair and piercing jade eyes. She was the most beautiful creature Hermes had ever laid eyes on.

"Naturally he decided to introduce himself…

"Well hello there." Hermes said flirtatiously.

The young woman arched a slender eyebrow at him, "Hi? Can I help you with something?"

Hermes grinned, "Well, I was just wondering what a beautiful thing like yourself was doing all alone on the night before Halloween."

The woman shook her head, causing her dark hair to ripple. Hermes was watching her trying to keep his head clear, how could a mortal be this beautiful? She was mesmerizing. "Well, I was going to go out to dinner with my boyfriend, but he decided that I wasn't good enough for him. He dumped me via text message." She batted her long black eyelashes; blinking away invisible tears.

She shook her head, "I don't know what I'm going to do now. I was supposed to bring a date to this Halloween party down on Maple Street, and I don't have anyone to go with."

She suddenly realized what she was doing and stood up to leave, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't be dropping all of this on you. I don't even know your name."

Hermes held out his hand, "Jacob." He lied easily without giving it a second thought.

The woman smiled and took his hand, "Bran."

"Well Bran, I know I'm probably not as dashing as your ex, but I'd be happy to accompany you to this Halloween party."

Bran smiled, "That would be lovely."

Travis stopped his story and took a bite out of a s'more that a younger camper had made for him.

Annabeth laughed, "So that's your terrifying story? That was weak. And to think, you called my story weak."

Travis shook his head and licked the leftover marshmallow off of his fingers, "Annabeth, Annabeth, Annabeth, you should know me better than that. Of course I'm not done with my story, I was just getting started. Now, where was I?

"Oh yea, so, a few hours later, Hermes, or as he was going by; Jacob, was preparing to pick up Bran and head over to the Halloween party. He had picked out a very frightening vampire costume and was admiring himself in the mirror. He almost couldn't recognize himself. Due to his advantages of being a god, he was able to change his natural hair color to an inky black, and give himself a natural, sharp widow's peak. He changed his eye color to blood red and had grown in sharp incisors. He had changed his normally tan skin color to an icy white color, and applied dark makeup under his eyes so they looked like bruises.

He had picked out a very smart looking suit and he had splashed some artificial blood around the neck area; the fake blood really contrasting against the white of his shirt.

He admired his work in the mirror one more time before hopping into his car and driving to Bran's house. He arrived at the address Bran had written down for him, and was slightly surprised by her house.

It was a dark gothic looking mansion with turrets and a black iron fence. The sky was beginning to turn dark, and Hermes was reminded slightly of a horror movie. Taking a deep breath, he walked up to the front porch and rang the doorbell, an eerie chime echoing through the large house.

A few minutes later, Bran answered the door. She too was dressed like a vampire, her raven hair and pale skin working well with her costume. She must have capped her incisors with points, and was wearing bright red lipstick. She wore a simple black gown, and looked just amazing.

Bran smiled, showing off her vampire fangs, "Huh, what a coincidence, we're both vampires."

Hermes laughed, "Yea, what a coincidence."

"You look very terrifying Jacob." Bran breathed, eyeing his costume.

"Why thank you very much." Hermes said with the stereo-typical vampire voice.

Bran laughed, "Hmm, cute and funny, you're definitely a step up from my last boyfriend."

Hermes smiled, "Well, I'm happy to oblige. So, shall we get going to this Halloween party you mentioned?"

Bran smiled, her incisors were beginning to disturb Hermes for some reason. "Yea, let's get going."

The vampire couple arrived at the mansion where the party was taking place. The windows were tinted black and had fake cobwebs covering them. Fake gravestones were scattered randomly around the front of the building while a real cemetery was around back. The sky surrounding the town had now grown black and lightening was illuminating the sky every few minutes.

Bran and Hermes began walking inside arm in arm.

"Hey! Bran! So glad you could make it!" A younger woman in a princess costume shouted over the loud music that was playing.

Bran smiled, "hi, Jackie, this is Jacob." Bran shouted over the music.

"Hi, Jacob, nice to meet you. Food and drinks are in the next room, and feel free to explore the haunted mansion. Apparently this house is home to many ghosts, but it's a very neat place to go exploring."

Jackie laughed once more before going back to the party.

"Well shall we see if they have anything good to drink? Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll be serving Bloody Marys." Hermes laughed.

Bran didn't seem very impressed by Hermes attempted joke. "Or maybe we can get some real blood."

Hermes laughed, not sure what was going on with her. He quickly dismissed it as Bran grabbed his hand and pulled him onto the dance floor where other couples were dancing through the artificial fog. "C'mon I love this song." She said as Disturbia blared over the speakers.

The two danced for a little while until Bran grabbed his hand, this time pulling him towards the stairs. "C'mon, let's find a place, a little more private." She said seductively.

Hermes eyes widened with anticipation (he was a god, what can you expect) and he allowed Bran to lead him upstairs.

They continued walking in silence to a small hidden room, hidden in the gloom.

Bran smiled seductively and opened the door. Inside the room was a small bed, a cracked mirror and… a coffin?

Hermes suddenly wasn't so sure. He remembered what Jackie had told them about ghosts, and he really didn't want a ghost spying on him while he was doing 'it'. He looked around again, and couldn't help but notice a blood stain on the bed. "Uh, you know what, maybe, maybe we should wait until we get back to your place. You know, somewhere, less haunted."

Bran laughed, "What's wrong Jacob, not scared of a few ghosts are you?" she asked as she placed her hands on his chest. Hermes tried not to shiver, but her hands were like ice.

"You okay Bran?" he asked as he reached up his hands and tried warming hers up, "your hands are freezing."

"You're not trying to change the subject are you Jacob?" She asked as she began to finger the pulse on his neck, "or should I say, Hermes." She said as she brought her lips up to his.

Hermes instantly pulled away, "What did you just call me?" he asked as he tried to ignore her hands as they began running up and down his chest and arms, always stopping at the pulse on his neck.

Before she could answer, the door slammed shut and the lights went out. The entire house went silent, and all that they could hear was their ragged breathing.

Hermes pulled away from Bran and went to the door, trying to open it; it wouldn't budge.

"Damn it! What the hell is wrong with this door?"

Bran laughed, "Calm down Hermes. You weren't planning on leaving me so soon were you?"

Hermes turned to her, "What?"

Bran rolled her eyes, the whites around her iris's sticking out through the dismal gloom. "Wow, Hermes, you really didn't think that I wouldn't figure you out did you?"

"What are you talking about?" Hermes asked, starting to feel nervous. _He was a god! He shouldn't feel nervous about a mortal woman._

Suddenly a flash of lightening illuminated the room, and Hermes felt a sinking feeling when he noticed in the mirror that the only reflection he saw was his own.

He looked at Bran again, whose fangs seemed to have grown slightly longer. She was smiling, "Well, Hermes you finally figured me out haven't you?"

Hermes tried to calm his breathing, "You're a real vampire aren't you?"

Bran smiled her white fangs almost blindingly bright. "Yup. And you're a god. You know, I've heard many stories about how, hmm, delectable, god blood is. Mortal blood is good, but immortal blood is like drinking heaven. It's so rich and flavorful. I can't wait to take a good taste of yours." And she lunged.

Hermes tried avoiding her but it was hard, she was fast. "Hermes, just look in my eyes, I promise you it won't hurt if you just calm down and look me in the eyes, if not, then, well, let's just say it won't be a very fun experience for you."

Needless to say, Hermes didn't listen to her. He tried getting out of the room but the door was still locked. He was trapped. Sooner or later, Bran would get what she wanted.

"Hermes," Bran laughed hypnotizing Hermes temporarily. "Good boy." Bran laughed as he finally looked into her jade eyes, "This won't hurt a bit." She angled his head so it was in an easy position for her to suck his blood.

Hermes woke up a while later and he found himself on Olympus. Confused, Hermes figured it must have been just a dream. He showed no sign of being a vampire, or even being bit by one. He went on with his normal life." Travis grinned as he concluded his story, "But, apparently, every Halloween, some of the children of Hermes grow fangs, the vampire trait passing through them from their father." Travis finished his story and smirked satisfactorily at Annabeth.

Some of the younger kids shook their heads, "That was a stupid story." A son of Ares scoffed, "Kids of Hermes aren't vampires! That's the stupidest, most ridiculous thing I have ever heard."

Travis shrugged, "Whatever, you don't have to believe it, but it's true."

The son of Ares shook his head once again and got up and headed to his cabin, as did some of the other young campers.

Travis turned to Annabeth, "So what did you think of my story?" he asked.

Annabeth shrugged, "It was pretty weak."

Travis grinned, "You were scared a little bit."

Annabeth shook her head, "Nope, not at all. I'm tired; I'm going to go to bed. Good night Travis. Happy Halloween."

Travis grinned, and Annabeth couldn't help but notice the pointy fangs where his incisors used to be. His eyes were not a bright red; he seemed distant, and transfixed on her neck, "Happy Halloween Annabeth."

* * *

**31 days til Halloween...**

**~ArtemisFrimm (bwahahahaha!)  
**


	2. TwickorTweat!

**Hola! Como estas? Lol basically i just said Heyy howzit goin, except you know, in Spanish, and well not as slang-y.**

**Summary: Some of the Younger hunters of Artemis convince Thalia to take them trick-or-treating. Very fluffy, cutesy stuff. Rated probably around k+ so yea, nothing bad at all. =) hope you all enjoy!**

**~Artemis Frimm (bwahahahaha)**

* * *

"C'mon Thalia! Please! We have to!" Lily, one of the newer hunters of Artemis had been following Thalia for days, trying to convince her to let the hunters go trick-or-treating. Lily was one of the younger of the hunters, and didn't want to give up Halloween just yet.

"Why? Halloween's not _that_ fun." Thalia argued.

Another one of the girls, Roux, perked up when Halloween was mentioned, "I've never been trick-or-treating. It wasn't around when I joined the hunters. What do you do?"

By then, quite a few more of the younger girls joined Thalia, Lily, and Roux as Thalia told them briefly about Halloween, "It's where kids dress up and go knocking on people's doors and ask for candy."

"It's really fun!" Lily added with enthusiasm.

"What do you dress up as?" Roux asked.

"Goblins, and ghosts, and vampires-"

"And Witches!" another girl named Karen joined in, "I was a witch once for Halloween and everyone said it was the best costume in the world! I won an extra big candy bar!"

"My Aunt Sarah was burned at the stake because everyone thought she was a witch." Rachel another girl said solemnly.

Lily shook her head, "No, witches now are just fun to dress up as! You get a big green nose, and a pointy hat, a large, hairy wart!"

"Ew, why would anyone want to dress up as that?" Rachel protested.

"You don't have to dress up as that. You could be a mummy!" Roux laughed.

"That'd be so fun! Thalia can we please go trick-or-treating? Please, please, please with a big, red, juicy cherry on top!" Karen whined.

"No, trick-or-treating would be stupid, no." Thalia said, crossing her arms over her chest in finality.

"Please!"

"C'mon it'd be fun!"

"I want candy!"

"I've never been!"

"Please!"

All four of the girls had pleading looks on their faces. Thalia let out a puff of air, if only Lady Artemis were here, she could talk the girls out of it, but since she was on a quest, Thalia was in charge, yet she couldn't say 'no' to their puppy-dog faces. "Fine, we'll go trick-or-treating." She was rewarded by cheers from the girls as they all started talking and planning their costumes.

A few days later, Thalia sat reading a book as she supervised the more… amateur girls as they practiced archery. She was distracted when she felt a small tug on her shirt, looking down; she saw Lily and Roux looking at her with looks of slight annoyance.

"Yes?"

It was Lily who spoke, "Well, we all have our costumes."

Thalia nodded, "Well that's good then." She said slowly, not sure as to where she was going with this, she turned back to her book.

Lily huffed, "Well?"

Thalia turned towards her, most of the girls would never dare talk to a lieutenant of Artemis like that but Lily was something different, she was never intimidated by Thalia's superiority, and despite how much it constantly annoyed her, the little girl was starting to grow on Thalia. "Can I help you with something?" Thalia asked.

"We all have our costumes." Lily said again.

"Yes, I know, you've said that already." Thalia said slowly.

"Well?"

Thalia was starting to lose her patience; Lily certainly had that affect on someone, "What do you want?"

"Do you have _your_ costume yet?" Lily asked in a very serious tone.

"No. I'm not going trick-or-treating." Thalia said.

Roux scrunched her nose, "Uh, yea, you are actually."

"Excuse me?" Thalia said in a tone that would have told most hunters to shut their mouths, but not these two.

"You said you were going trick-or-treating too!" Lily argued.

Thalia shook her head, "I never said that."

Lily frowned and looked at Roux, "Can I hear an exact quote please?"

Roux nodded, "Sure!" She cleared her throat, "You said, and I quote 'Fine, _we'll _go trick-or-treating.'"

"'We' includes you too Thalia. So get off your butt and pick out a costume!" Lily said honestly.

Thalia arched an eyebrow at her in question, she was pushing her luck.

Lily seemed to realize what she said, "Please?" she suggested.

Thalia sighed, "Fine, whatever, I'll throw something together eventually."

"But Thalia, Halloween's tomorrow!" Roux said.

Thalia scowled, _damn_. "Don't worry I'll put something together."

"Great! I can't wait to see it!" And with that, the two scampered off.

It was finally Halloween, and Thalia was putting on the finishing touches of her costume. She decided she would just go as a vampire; fun and simple.

She took a step back and admired her work, she had to admit, she looked pretty cool. She used a little makeup she carried around and powdered her face white. She had put on a black, puffy, lacey skirt, and wore torn black skinny jeans underneath it. She wore a black shirt with skull and crossbones on it and she added the finishing touches, fangs, they were the cheap kind that you buy at party stores, except they were more comfortable, and fit in more like a retainer, all in all, not a bad costume.

"Thalia, hurry up!" Lily's voice rang from the other side of her tent.

Sighing, Thalia grabbed the four pillow-cases for the girls and walked out of her tent. The girls were there and already dressed up; Rachel wore a Tinker Bell dress made of leaves (wings included) with leggings underneath. Karen had painted her skin green, (with what, Thalia wasn't sure) and had glued a long pointy nose, wart included, over her real nose. Her black hair was down over her shoulders and she had a black hat on top. Lily was the most obvious for she was the shortest, she had wrapped herself from head to toe in toilet paper; a mummy, it was pretty cute, and small strands of short brown hair stuck out from under the wrapping. Roux had placed a blonde wig over her fiery orange hair, was wearing tons of make-up, had on skinny jeans and boots and wore a purple jacket.

Thalia smiled at their costumes, they were all cute in their own bizarre little way, "Nice costumes! So, we have Tinker Bell, the Wicked Witch, a mummy, and… Roux who are you supposed to be anyway?"

Roux's eyes opened with surprise, "I'm Hannah Montana! I thought my costume was perfect!"

Thalia couldn't help but laugh, now that she mentioned it, she did sort of look like a Disney pop-star.

Lily shook her head, "Thalia, where is your costume? I though you said you'd dress up!"

"I am dressed up."

"As what, yourself? Cause no offense but you're doing a crappy job, you don't really even look like yourself! You look like a wannabe Thalia." Karen pointed out blandly.

Thalia frowned, "No, I'm a vampire. That's why I have the fangs!"

Lily and the other girls looked at each other, "oh."

Thalia shook her head, "C'mon, let's get going, the sooner we go trick-or-treating, the sooner we can be done with it."

The other girls nodded, and they made their way to the closest town. The girls trick-or-treated until their sacks began to feel heavier than they were. All in all, it wasn't _that_ bad. They went for a bit longer until Lily started nodding off inside her T-P mummy costume.

"C'mon let's get going back." Thalia said as she led the four sleepy girls back to the campsite.

They all headed into Thalia's tent and they all emptied their candy onto the floor, all together, there was probably enough candy to last them until next Halloween. The girls traded and ate some of their candy as they told each other stories and laughed until it was nearly midnight; Thalia laughing with them.

Finally Thalia told them it was time for bed. Grumbling, but still happy from the night, the girls gathered their candy and walked out of Thalia's tent towards their own.

Thalia was getting ready to crash into bed when Lily came back in. "Hey Lily, what's up?"

Lily didn't say anything but instead walked over to Thalia and gave her a soft hug, "Thanks for taking me trick-or-treating Thalia."

Thalia, shocked originally, gave the little girl a hug back, "It was fun. We'll have to do it again next year."

Lily nodded, her eyes drooping shut again, "You'll have to get a better costume though."

Thalia laughed as she scooped the girl up and brought her back to her own tent, and placed her in her bed.

"Good night Lily."

"Happy Halloween Thalia."

* * *

**26 days til Halloweeen!**

**~ArtemisFrimm (bwahahahaha)**


	3. Halloween Sweets

**Heyy! So yea uh this one took forEVER to write! I mean seriously I started in September and finished it on October 5th! Uh well hope you enjoy!**

**Summary: Apollo convinces Iris to go with him the Aphrodite and Hephaestus's haunted house costume party. Lots of cutesy stuff and i seriously love the thought of Iris x Apollo even though Iris is not mentioned very often in the PJO series... Candy, punch, and... Edward Cullen? T**

**Warning: Okay, maybe a little swearing, also, note that I really, _really_ don't like Twilight, so yes, I may have mocked some of the characters a bit... if you don't like the Twilight mocking part, don't freak out, I really wouldn't appreciate that. The Twilight characters are _supposed_ to seem ooc and annoying, almost humorous, so yea, just thought I'd mention that because I know there are a lot of Twilight fans out there... Other than that, hope you enjoy... :)**

**~ArtemisFrimm (bwahahaha)  
**

* * *

"So is that a yes?" Apollo asked for the umpteenth time today.

Iris shook her head causing her shiny blonde hair to shimmer, "Apollo what part of 'no' don't you understand?" she asked, though originally amused by Apollo constantly asking her to be his date at Hephaestus's haunted house party, now it was starting to get annoying.

"C'mon! Aphrodite's holding a costume contest! I bet you'd win if you went." Apollo said, putting on his best puppy-dog face.

"I don't want to go Apollo!" Iris exasperated.

Apollo let out a long sigh, "Fine, I guess I'll have to go _by myself_ to a Halloween party. I'd probably look really depressing too because I'd be stuck with all the other misfits who couldn't find dates like Hermes and Artemis."

Iris shook her head, "You are so mean." She laughed.

Apollo shrugged, "Fine, but it's true. Aphrodite will never let me live this down. It'll be the first party I'll ever attend without a date." He sighed, and looked away, wiping away fake tears.

Iris shook her head; this is what she got for having the god of drama attracted to her. She put on a face of mock sympathy, "Aw poor Apollo won't have a date, how tragic."

Apollo looked up at her and his gaze sharpened, "It is actually, I'm surprised the universe hasn't collapsed yet." He said matter-of-factly.

"Hmm, it's that bad huh?" she said with fake interest.

Apollo shook his head, his eyes full of humorous sadness, although, deep in his eyes, Iris could see genuine hurt from being rejected. She let out a sigh, "Well if having a date to the Halloween party is the only way to keep the universe from collapsing, then I suppose I'll have to go with you." _Gods she gave in easily._

Apollo's face instantly lit up and he flashed an almost childish grin, "Great! Can't wait! I'll pick you up at six! And make sure to wear a super sexy Halloween costume." He winked at her, and then left to go get ready.

Iris shook her head in disgust; she knew that if Artemis had heard him say that, she would have smacked him silly for being so sexist, but Iris couldn't help but grin, she kind of liked being the sun god's newest infatuation.

A few hours later, Artemis and Iris were in Iris's suite getting ready for the party. Artemis was already dressed as a vampire; her dark auburn hair was twisted into a long ponytail on her head and curled down to her shoulders, a small bat perched at the base of her ponytail. She had let Iris put just enough makeup on her to give her a vampire affect. The dark makeup around her eyes really made her eyes look like those of a vampire. She wore a blackish-purple shirt and wore dark jeans and converse.

Where it had taken Artemis less than a half an hour to get ready, it took Iris almost three hours to get ready. She had decided to go as a gothic princess. Her dress was a made of maroon satin and went down to her feet. The top was cut lower, revealing just enough to tease Apollo a little. She kept redoing her hair, trying to get it perfect. Even for a goddess, this was a hard task. Her blonde hair just wouldn't curl the way she wanted it to.

"For Hermes sake Iris would you hurry up! You're being vainer than Aphrodite."

"I have to look perfect!" Iris argued.

Artemis smirked, "Why, I thought you didn't even want to go with my brother? You're not trying to impress him are you?"

Iris blushed, "No, I just want to look good for the costume contest." Iris argued, relieved that she could come up with a reasonable excuse.

"Yea, right."

"What time is it?" Iris asked.

Artemis shrugged, "Almost six, why?"

"Apollo's going to be here any minute, what am I going to do with my hair?" Iris asked.

Artemis shook her head and walked over to her friend and twisted her curly hair into a loose bun, fulfilling her gothic princess look. Iris looked in amazement at her, "How-"

"Don't ask."

A knock on the door broke Iris's train of thought and she walked over and opened it. Apollo walked in, a cocky grin on his face. Iris's jaw dropped slightly at the sight of his costume; he was wearing a white pirate shirt and vest that was slightly unbuttoned at the top revealing his well-toned muscles underneath, his light hair was hidden under a pirate hat and his pants were slightly ripped and he wore converse underneath, basically, he looked really… well… hot.

Apollo smirked at Iris's staring, "Like the view Iris?"

Iris instantly caught herself staring at his chest and blushed for the second time that night. Apollo smirked, "Well Iris, based on your reaction, I'd say that I look pretty stunning, and you look pretty hot yourself." He said in his typical flirty demeanor.

Artemis watched the two with disgust, "You do realize I'm still in the room right?"

Apollo glared at his sister, "Than leave."

Iris blushed, "Yea, we should probably start heading towards the party."

"What party?" Apollo asked, still staring at Iris.

"You know the Halloween party you told me I _had_ to accompany you to." Iris said shaking her head.

Apollo blushed, "Right, let's go then." He said as he took Iris by the arm and escorted her to the party. Artemis walked behind them shaking her head and muttering about how annoying they both were.

The trio finally arrived at the party, and gods and demigods were filing into the haunted house created by Hephaestus. It was pretty cool, animated gargoyles guarded the house and would occasionally snap at guests passing by. Dark towers jutted up from the building and an iron fence surrounded the eerie building, with cobwebs littering the windows. The three walked in and were instantly greeted by Hermestein.

"Hey you guys made it!" he eyed Iris and Artemis, "Nice costumes ladies, very… festive." Artemis punched Hermes in the arm and stalked off while Iris just flushed.

"Hermes, go creep on someone else's date, and leave mine alone." Apollo said irritably as he reached down and tangled his fingers with Iris's.

Hermes smirked in a very Frankenstein-ish looking way, "Fine, I'll leave you and your lovely date alone. I'll go creep on your sister instead." He winked at them and began walking away.

"Wait, Hermes don't you dare!" But Hermes was already out of earshot. Iris giggled.

"He is such a pain in the ass." Apollo muttered irritably.

"I think he's kind of funny." Iris laughed as she began to grow conscious of the fact that he was lightly tracing her knuckles with his thumb, almost unconsciously.

Apollo followed her gaze and instantly pulled his hand away. "So, wanna go get some punch?" he asked nonchalantly.

Iris nodded, her hand feeling numb from the absence of his hand. They followed the music to the dance hall where minor gods and gods were dancing to the Halloween music that blared from the speakers craftily mounted on the walls. Iris smiled when she saw Artemis looking very annoyed while Hermes talked her ear off.

Apollo walked over to the punch bowl just as Aphrodite walked up on stage; she was dressed in a pink princess dress and wore a tiara. "Ok, let's settle down now. Now I'm sure you all have been waiting for this moment your entire immortal lives; time for my costume contest!" she paused and smiled for effect than continued, "So, everyone here has been categorized under a certain theme, for example, I would be placed under the 'pretty' category, and so would everyone else with a 'pretty' costume. There are five categories: Sexy, Pretty, Goth, Classic, and Scary. So the winners from the categories will be chosen and then we will vote to see who will win the entire costume contest!"

"What do we get if we win?" Hermes asked.

"The winner receives this big trophy!" Aphrodite said as Ares held up the gargantuan celestial bronze trophy.

Everyone stared in awe and began murmuring excitedly to themselves as they stared at the giant trophy.

Iris rolled her eyes; how people could get so excited about a trophy was always beyond her. Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt a light tap on her shoulder. She turned around to find herself face-to-face with a young man in his late teens or early twenties. He had long, dark hair that was spiked loosely. He had yellow eyes; not pretty like Artemis's, his were cold and arrogant. He wore dark clothes and was very, very pale.

"Hi?"

"Hey. So are you here all by your lonesome?" The man asked, eying her costume.

Iris shook her head; she really didn't like this guy for some reason. "No, I came with Apollo."

The man shook his head, "Never heard of him."

"How can you have not heard of Apollo? He's like one of the biggest celebrities on Olympus!" The man just shook his head, "You know, one of the Olympians?" The man watched her with a blank expression. "The god of the sun, how have you not heard of him?"

The man shrugged, "I don't get out very often."

"Oh." Iris said, "Well I'm Iris."

"Edward." The man held out his hand. Iris took it and was shocked when he brought the back of her hand up to his mouth and gave it a small kiss.

Iris blushed and tried to think of something to say, "So, you know Aphrodite?"

"Yea, she was sweet on me a while ago, I guess she still is."

"Oh."

Apollo came back and wasn't to pleased to see his 'date' for the evening talking to some rotten, bastard, _Stephanie Meyer_, wannabe vampire.

He walked over to her and kissed her cheek trying to tell the wannabe to back off. Iris flushed furiously. It still amazed him that he could give her that reaction.

"Hey Iris, who's your friend?" Apollo asked as calmly as possible even though on the inside he had already blasted this bozo into a million pieces.

"Oh, um, this is, uh-"

"Edward." Edward said as he held out his hand.

"Isn't that the name of that gay vampire in that chick book series?" Apollo asked coolly.

Edward set his jaw, "Okay first of all; Edward was not gay; he loved Bella… a lot. Also, Edward is a very masculine name and has been a common name since the 1900s."

Apollo shook his head, "You keep telling yourself that buddy."

Edward glared at Apollo, "Okay, well I'll just leave you two for now. I'm gonna go see what Aphrodite's up to." And with that he stalked off.

Iris smirked at Apollo as he stuck out his tongue at Edward. "Why are you so mean?"

Apollo shook his head, "I am not the mean one in this situation. He should know that trying to steal a man's date is immorally wrong and breaks the guy code."

Iris smiled, "The guy code?"

Apollo shrugged, "Sorry Iris, I'm not allowed to inform you of the code unless you get a gender transfer, which, by the way, would make this evening incredibly awkward."

Iris laughed, "Okay well I'm gonna go see what Artemis's doing."

Apollo nodded, "No prob. I'm gonna go look and see if I can't find any of Hestia's famous pumpkin gobs."

Iris bade him goodbye for now and walked over to where Artemis was sitting next to a chattering Hermes.

"Hey Artemis."

Hermes instantly stopped talking to Artemis and stood up and grinned at Iris, "Why Iris, I knew you'd eventually ditch Apollo to come after me, and quite _frank_ly I can't blame you." He said winking at her.

Artemis rolled her eyes, and Hermes eyed her, "Get it? _Frank_ly? I'm dressed up as Frankenstein… Get it?"

Artemis gave Iris a look that told her she wanted to punch Hermes' face in. "He's been like this all night. Apparently he drank five cups of black coffee before coming here."

Hermes nodded ecstatically, "I've had to pee almost eight times since we got here."

"Oh my gods." Iris laughed as Artemis shook her head.

"Yea, he's been like this all night. So how's your date with Apollo going?" Artemis snickered.

Before Iris could answer, someone cut her off, "Uh, excuse me, would you by any chance know where Aphrodite is?"

Iris spun around and saw a tan muscular man about the same age as Edward was. He had spiky black hair and brown eyes. Iris was at a loss of words, fortunately, Artemis wasn't fazed by this extremely handsome man.

"Last I saw her she was dancing with Ares."

The man eyed Artemis's costume with disgust, "A vampire? Really? Werewolves are so much cooler."

Artemis just glared at him so the man continued, "I'm Jacob by the way. Would you mind escorting me to where you last saw her? I haven't been here before."

"Pass." Artemis said coolly.

Jacob shrugged, "Fine," he looked passed Hermes and back at Iris, "You wouldn't by any chance be able to show me where she is? Would you?"

Iris shrugged, "Uh sure, why not?"

The two walked off towards where Aphrodite was last seen, they walked in silence for a while until Iris became aware that Jacob had wrapped his arm around her and had his hand placed on the small of her back.

Iris stopped, "Jacob, look, I'm here with someone and-"

She was cut off as Edward stormed across the dance hall, "Jacob what the hell do you think you are doing with my girl?"

"Um, excuse me but?" Iris was cut off by Jacob.

"Your girl? I do believe we had a stronger connection than she had with you, you blood drinking creep!" Jacob snarled in an almost dog like way.

"Take that back you son of a bitch!" Edward hissed.

A low growl bubbled deep in Jacob's throat as a violent shudder ran through him. Large canine fangs grew over his regular teeth. Hair sprouted over his neck and arms and his nose grew larger and more dog-like.

"You're a dog!" Iris shrieked.

"Glad you agree." Edward hissed, showing off his vampire fangs.

"Oh my gods, what is this?" Iris shrieked.

"Hush Iris, we are fighting for your love!" Edward said.

_Wow corny much? _Iris just watched in shock as the two began dueling each other.

"Hey, Iris, what's going on?" Apollo asked, sliding next to her as he too watched vampire and werewolf fight for her 'love'.

Iris shook her head, "I honestly haven't the slightest idea."

Apollo cocked his head to the side, "It looks like a cheesy reenactment from that weird vampire movie."

Before Iris could respond, Edward and Jacob noticed Apollo, and both rushed at him. "What are you doing with my girl?" Jacob growled.

"For the last time dog-breath, she's not your girl, she's mine! I knew her first." Edward snarled.

Apollo frowned, "Okay, no offense or anything, but I do believe that she accompanied _me _here. Not either of you."

"Shut up!" Jacob and Edward looked at each other and shoved Apollo at the snack table.

Artemis, Hermes, and Iris ran over to him, and luckily he just seemed dazed. He stood back up and brushed himself off, "Huh, well that kind of hurt."

Before anyone could say anything else, Aphrodite stepped back up on stage, completely ignorant to the fight between Edward and Jacob. "Excuse me, could I have everyone's attention please? Thank you! It's time to announce the winners of the subcategories. The winner with the prettiest costume is…" she paused for effect, "Me!" Everyone in the audience just looked at her while she beamed at them and bowed. Getting no response, Aphrodite went back to the winners list, "Well, the winner with the scariest costume is… Hephaestus! Congratulations! Please come up on stage and show everyone your terrifying costume."

Hephaestus looked around confused, for a moment, "I'm not wearing a costume." He grumbled.

Aphrodite narrowed her eyes, "Really? Wow, that is scary. Okay, the winner with the costume that was the most 'classic', is… Hermes!"

Hermes grinned and hopped up on stage and took a big bow, before Aphrodite shooed him off stage again, "Okay, the winner with the best 'gothic' costume is… Iris! Come on up and show off that gothic costume."

Apollo gave her hand a squeeze and she stepped up on stage. Aphrodite gave her a phony smile before pushing her back off of the stage. Iris frowned but stood back next to Apollo.

Aphrodite smiled, "Now for the sexiest costumes of the night. In this department we have three winners; come on down, Apollo, Jacob, and Edward!"

Apollo's mouth fell open and he looked at Edward and Jacob and saw that they were both glaring at him and each other.

The three made their way on stage, wear Aphrodite congratulated them. "You all have an hour to vote to see who you want to win the whole competition and win the giant trophy. So vote now!" Once off stage, Jacob and Edward both glared at Apollo again, "You're going down pretty boy."

Apollo shrugged, "Your right, Iris will win for sure." He said matter-of-factly.

Edward shook his head, "She doesn't want you sun-god. She wants a real man! Isn't that right?" he asked as he wrapped his arm around Iris, resting his hand on her waist.

Iris shuddered at his touch, his hands were ice-cold. She pulled herself away from him to find herself in Jacob's waiting arms, "She probably wants a boyfriend who's actually alive!" Jacob said indignantly.

Iris moved away from him, "Actually, I really don't like either of you two." She said nervously.

"What! But I'm extremely-"

"- sexiest thing you'll ever-"

"- see why he can't love you like I-"

"- want to spend eternity with you!"

The two kept arguing until Apollo walked between them, "Hey, leave her alone! She should be able to choose who _she _loves! And if you really love her," he looked over at her, for some reason he looked really nervous, "you'll support her choice, and, and-"

He was cut off as Iris wrapped her arms around him and kissed him, "I choose you." She said quietly.

Apollo grinned and kissed her back, "I choose you too."

Before Iris could say anything else, Aphrodite tapped on the microphone, "Now, I think it's time to announce the winner of the costume contest!"

Edward shook his head and looked over at Jacob and Apollo, "I may not have won the girl, but I'll win this contest for sure."

Jacob eyed him, "Why because for your super-sexy costume, you can glitter in the sunlight? Wow, really sexy."

"At least my muscles are real and not inflatable!" Edward snapped back.

"Oh, you wanna go blood-sucker?"

"Bring it on dog-breath!"

"Excuse me!" Aphrodite snapped at the two, they instantly quieted down. Aphrodite smiled and then went back to announcing the winner, "And the winner of the 2010 costume contest is… IRIS!"

Iris smiled and looked at Apollo who was clapping for her, "Happy Halloween Iris."

* * *

**Aww :D like I said I love that couple **

**17 days til Halloween!**

**~ArtemisFrimm (bwahahaha)  
**


	4. Payback

**Mkay so let's come to this very understandable conclusion... I suck at updating. Yes it's very true. A few months ago I was planning on having at least 10 chapters posted. I'll be lucky if I break 14... Don't give up on me just yet though, I've got a few planned to come.**

**Summary: I was inspired by a Suite Life of Zack and Cody episode, basically, Hermes pulls pranks on the other Olympians and when Aphrodite suggests that they spend a night in the Garden of Hells, well, Hermes gets the scare of his life. T just in case, just for mild swearing... in case you've noticed, my swearing isn't like what you'd see on some fanfics... (I think it's dirty -_-) anywhoo, enjoy the fic...**

**~ArtemisFrimm (bwahahahaha)  
**

* * *

Apollo was enjoying the silence and emptiness of this Halloween night as he walked through the old garden on Olympus. Now that it was fall, he finally got to sleep in while his sister had to work longer. He laughed out loud until he realized how loud his voice sounded in the empty, quite night.

He glanced around the garden and felt a small twinge in his heart. _It's just those statues;_ he thought to himself, _gods are never scared; you're just… slightly unnerved is all._

Letting out a shaky sigh, Apollo began walking back towards his apartment when he heard the faint sound of a twig snap. Even though he wasn't the god of the hunt, he did have some of the hunting abilities, such as keen hearing. Shaking his head, he continued on, _it was just a chipmunk, or a squirrel, or… a statue?_ He could have sworn one of the statues just moved. He tried clearing the thought from his head, and to calm his nerves down, he walked over to the statue he thought had moved. He reached his hand out to touch the statue, but before he could, the statue's cold hand flew out and gripped Apollo's wrist.

Apollo let out a very ungodly sounding scream as he pulled his wrist away from the statue. Apollo drew his bow, when he noticed that the statue was laughing, in a tone that sounded annoyingly like Hermes. He still didn't lower his bow.

"Hermes, what in Hades is wrong with you?" Apollo snarled at the younger god.

Hermes doubled over in laughter, "Oh, my gods, Apollo! You're so easily fooled!" he continued laughing.

"I… you... I wasn't fooled! I knew it was you the whole time, I, uh, I just wanted to entertain you." Apollo stuttered.

Hermes laughed, "Well you certainly entertained me! That scream was hilarious. Could you entertain me again please?"

Apollo felt his face turn bright red. Hermes would never let him live this down.

Hermes smirked, "Man, I can't wait to tell Artemis and Aphrodite. They'll love this." Before Apollo could do anything to stop him, Hermes bolted off.

Hermes laughed the whole way to the center of Olympus. He kept replaying the look on Apollo's face when he grabbed his wrist; it was classic.

"What's so funny?" Artemis asked. Hermes could tell by the slight flush on her face that she and Aphrodite had been arguing.

Hermes smirked, "I just played the most hilarious prank on your brother."

"What did you do?" Aphrodite asked.

"I scared the sh-"

Hermes was cut off as Apollo tackled him from behind, "You're such an asshole!" Apollo snarled at him. They fought for a few minutes like two brothers may fight. It looked pretty ridiculous.

After a minute or so, Apollo stood up and dusted himself off and looked at Artemis and Aphrodite with a serious look, "What ever he told you is a lie."

"Wait, you mean the part about you screaming like a little girl?" Hermes grunted as he pushed himself off of the ground.

Apollo's face turned scarlet as Artemis and Aphrodite burst into fits of giggles. "It _may_ have startled me slightly, but I was _NOT_ scared." Apollo muttered.

Hermes smirked at him, "Okay, well were you pretending to be a 'startled' ten year old girl?" Hermes thought for a moment, "Actually that's an insult to ten-year-old girls. You sounded more like a Justin Bieber screaming after inhaling helium. Yea, that sounds more accurate." Hermes' face broke into a grin while Artemis and Aphrodite laughed until they started coughing. "I do not sound like Justin Bieber on helium!" Apollo frowned.

Aphrodite coughed, "Well, Apollo if you were scared of a little joke, then there is no way you could last a night in The Garden of Hells."

"What's that?" Hermes asked his curiosity sparked.

Aphrodite smirked at Artemis. "It's an allegedly haunted garden in Olympus. It's the only place on Olympus where demons, and souls, and other hellish creatures can meet." Artemis explained.

Aphrodite nodded, "When I first became a goddess, which was many years ago, I ventured into the garden and met up with a sweet demigod woman. Apparently her husband left her for some bitch in Troy, so she came to me for help. I walked into the garden that night and she was laying in the garden, dead, a Trojan arrow through her heart. I went back last month and while I was there, a woman who resembled her screamed at me to leave and shot an arrow at me. I ran out screaming, but I left my purse in the garden."

She turned to Hermes and Apollo, "You know I'd be _so_ grateful if someone were to return it for me."

Hermes lips quirked into a smile, "What would I get in return?"

Aphrodite shrugged, "I don't know. But you know I have noticed you taking a particular interest in a certain fair-haired mortal girl. If you got my purse back I _could_ make things real interesting for you two."

Hermes grinned from ear to ear, "Yea sure we'll get your purse for you! Won't we Apollo?"

Apollo shook his head, "No thanks I'm good in the love department."

"Why? Just because you went on one date with Iris doesn't make you 'good in the love department'." Artemis smirked.

Hermes grinned, "He's just too scared to go with me to the garden."

Apollo frowned, "That is not true, I… I just don't want to go."

Hermes smirked, "Bock! Bock! Chicken! Chicken! Bock! Bock!"

Apollo frowned even farther, "I am not a chicken, I just… I have allergies this time of year." He said earnestly.

"Gods don't have allergies." Artemis pointed out.

Hermes snickered, "Even she's on my side. Although, Artemis, I'm not gonna lie, you'd probably be too scared to go to the garden."

Artemis frowned, "I would not. I do not believe in ghosts, and besides I don't get scared."

Hermes smirked, "Oh please, I saw you scream when I jumped out at you last week."

Artemis's face turned red and she opened her mouth in attempt to come up with something to say. Apollo couldn't help but laugh, that's what she got for laughing at him tonight. Karma was coming back to punch her in the face... _That's perfect!_

Artemis finally came up with something to say, "I was not scared! You just… startled me. What normal person _wouldn't_ scream if at midnight, someone jumped out of their closet and grabbed them?"

Apollo frowned at Hermes, "Quit being a creeper Hermes, and stay out of my sister's closet!"

Hermes shrugged and winked at Artemis before continuing on, "I'm just saying that I doubt any of you would last a night in that garden."

Artemis frowned, "I could easily last a whole night in there, and so could Apollo."

Aphrodite frowned, "Well I couldn't. Tell me how it goes, and don't forget to grab my purse." She turned to walk away but Artemis grabbed her arm before she could leave.

"You have to come with or you can kiss your purse good bye."

Aphrodite frowned, "Fine, but there is no way I'm staying a whole night. I just want to grab my purse and leave."

Artemis shrugged, "Fine, we'll be able to prove to you that the garden isn't haunted and you'll get your purse back."

Hermes grinned, "Or we'll prove that the ghost _is _real, and we'll also get to see Apollo running out of the garden screaming like a baby."

Apollo felt his face heat with anger, "I bet I could last inside that stupid garden longer than you could!"

Hermes grinned a satisfactory grin, "What are we betting?"

Apollo thought for a moment, "Service. Whoever runs out of the garden first has to do whatever the winner wants for half a millennium."

Hermes grinned and held out his hand, "Deal. Man, Apollo, prepare to do my dirty work for the next five hundred years."

Apollo shook his hand, "Yea right Hermes, and be ready to be my little servant for the next half a millennia."

Hermes smirked then turned to Artemis, "Not joining in on the bet?"

Artemis shook her head, "I'll go with but I'll pass on the betting."

Hermes shrugged, "Fine, but when I win I'll share my little henchman with you."

Artemis shook her head, "You're too kind." She said sarcastically.

"Well, shall we go tonight so I can have my purse for my date with Ares tomorrow?" Aphrodite suggested.

The three nodded, and Aphrodite led them to the Garden of Hells. The wind whipped through their hair and the leaves that littered the hallowed floor of the garden were swept around their feet. As soon as the gods passed through the wrought-iron gate, the air instantly grew cold, Artemis shivered slightly.

"Scared already?" Hermes smirked.

Artemis glared at him, "No."

Aphrodite smiled grimly, "Welcome to the Garden of Hells, home of Aegina."

"Is Aegina the girl who died here?" Hermes asked.

Aphrodite nodded, "Yep. Here, I'll show you the place she was murdered."

She led them down a spider-web laced spiral staircase that led the group of gods to the lower portion of the garden.

"Jeez, Aphrodite, how big is this garden?" Hermes asked irritably as he tried brushing the cobwebs out of his hair.

Aphrodite shrugged, "Let's just say you could easily get lost in here and not found for a few millennia, it's happened before."

Hermes nodded, trying not to show that he was beginning to feel nervous about the garden. Ignoring the feeling, they continued on.

On the cobblestone ground, Apollo could vaguely make out a dark brown stain that he recognized as blood. A silver Trojan arrow was snapped in half next to the blood stain and hanging from another arrow that was shot into a tree was Aphrodite's purse.

"Well there's your purse Aphrodite." Hermes said blandly.

Aphrodite smiled, "Thank goodness, I can get out of here now. This place gives me the willies! Well, I'll see you all tomorrow. That is assuming you all make it out alive." With a tiny wave, she walked back up the spiral steps towards the exit.

The three listened in silence as the sound of Aphrodite's footsteps faded. Artemis was the one to break the silence, "Well I guess it's just us now."

Hermes was amazed how loud her voice sounded in the eerie silence. The fog was beginning to grow thicker around the garden and the wind was beginning to pick up.

"Well we should probably-"

Artemis's voice was cut off by a loud blood-curdling scream coming from somewhere inside the garden. It sounded eerily like Aphrodite.

Artemis jumped and grabbed her brother's arm, Apollo's eyes were wide and Hermes felt as if his immortal heart had temporarily stopped.

"That sounded like Aphrodite. We should probably see if she's ok." Hermes said, his voice cracking slightly.

Apollo nodded, "Good idea."

The three walked up the stairs and looked around for any sign of Aphrodite. "We should probably split up and look for her." Artemis suggested, "I'll go with Apollo, we'll search the north side of the garden, Hermes you search the south side."

Hermes shook his head, "No way Artemis, you know what happens in all those horror movies when the three main characters split up! The attractive leading male always gets killed off because he's not in a group! No way am I going by myself."

Artemis rolled her eyes, "Fine baby, I'll go by myself. You and Apollo go together since you're too scared."

Hermes shook his head, "Okay first of all I am not scared, I'm just thinking logically, and you can't go by yourself. You're the leading female in this horror film. If you go by yourself then you'll be killed off, and then there can't be a romantic moment between the leading male and female!"

"Okay, first of all, gross! Second, I don't believe in any of that stuff. I'll be fine, and we'll cover more ground if we split up. You two go that way, I'll look over here." Artemis said with that look of confidence and stubbornness that let Hermes know that arguing with her would be impossible.

He frowned, "Fine, but don't come haunting me when you get killed off."

Artemis shrugged, "No promises. Meet me back here in half an hour." Hermes and Apollo nodded, and Artemis sprinted off into the fog.

Hermes turned and grinned at Apollo, "Well I guess it's just you and me buddy."

Apollo shook his head, "Let's just find Aphrodite."

Hermes shrugged, "Lead the way mi amigo."

The two walked towards the entrance of the garden, the fog was now so thick that the gods couldn't see almost four feet in front of them.

"Aphrodite!" Apollo called, "Aphrodite are you ok?"

"Dude, shut up! You should know that shouting for someone always attracts the monsters and murderers!" Hermes hissed.

Apollo frowned, "You've seen way to many horror movies. Now help me look for her."

Hermes nodded, he tried looking around through the fog, he didn't 'see' anything, but he did manage to trip over something.

"Ouch, damn it, what in Hades did I trip on?" Hermes cursed.

Apollo walked over and crouched to see what the god of thieves tripped on. Apollo felt his blood chill, Aphrodite's purse and a scrap of her dress from the evening was on the ground.

"Uh, Hermes, we have to find Artemis and get out of here." Apollo said shakily.

"Why what did you find?" Hermes asked.

Apollo showed him the purse and the torn scrap of clothing and Hermes face turned a ghostly pale. "Well that's not-"

Before he could finish, the two heard Artemis cry out in fear and pain. "NO! NO! NO! STOP!" she screamed.

Hermes felt the blood leave his face completely.

Apollo looked as if he had been slapped, "I have to go find her." He breathed as he jumped up and sprinted off in the direction of his sister's voice.

"No! Wait Apollo what did I say about splitting up!" Hermes felt his blood begin to rush. Maybe coming to the Garden of Hells was a bad idea.

Trying to calm down, he stood up and tried to make his way after Apollo. He walked for a while as the wind picked up uncomfortably, causing him to shake slightly.

He walked for a while, before he realized that he had walked his way into a large maze. Realizing his mistake he tried to turn around, only to find himself at a dead end.

_Damn it Apollo where are you? _Hermes walked a little further into the maze when he felt a rush of wind graze his ear, and heard the recognizable _thwang_ of an arrow hitting its mark. Turning around, Hermes saw to his horror, a silver arrow like the one that had been broken in half.

Hermes let out a muffled scream as he ran as fast as he could through the maze, desperately trying to find an exit.

He ran blindly through the fog until he finally made his way out of the maze, still running in blind horror. He was so scared that he didn't notice the slip-knot trap until he felt his feet lifted out from under him as he hung upside down. He let out another scream as he saw three dark figures making their way towards him.

It wasn't until he heard familiar laughter did he stop screaming.

"Wow that was classic!" he heard Artemis laugh.

"Yes, yes it was. Hey Hephaestus, turn on the lights and kill the fog!" he heard Apollo laugh.

Suddenly bright warehouse lights flashed on and the fog began to melt away. Standing in front of Hermes was Artemis, Aphrodite, and Apollo, all completely unharmed and laughing hysterically.

"Wha- wha- what's going on?" Hermes asked shakily.

Aphrodite smirked, "Got'cha!"

"Let me down from here!" Hermes snapped, as his panic began to wash away.

Artemis shrugged, "Okay." She walked behind the tree that Hermes was hanging in and she untied the rope, causing Hermes to crash unceremoniously onto the ground.

"What's going on? Where did all these lights come from? What the hell happened tonight?" Hermes asked irritably as the three gods laughed.

Apollo shrugged, "We were tired of you playing pranks on us, so we decided to play on back. Artemis, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus were more than willing to help." He grinned.

"Wha- how?"

Apollo smile and pulled his sister in for a hug, "Well, you see, Artemis and Aphrodite are truly amazing actresses, and with the right setup thanks to Hephaestus, we were able to pull of a truly haunted garden." He smirked.

"But what about the arrow? The blood? How do you explain that?" Hermes asked feeling his face turn scarlet.

Apollo grinned again, "The blood was easy to pull off, just add a little dirt to ketchup and rub it into the ground."

"And Artemis is pretty skilled with a bow and arrow, that shot was easy to pull off." Aphrodite shrugged.

Artemis nodded, "Your reaction however, was just perfect; the perfect combination of fear and payback."

Hermes frowned, then smirked at them, "Well it looks like the joke's on you, because I wasn't scared in the slightest. I knew it was you all along." He said arrogantly.

"No way,"

"Yea right"

"Please,"

"You were scared Hermes just admit it, we all heard you screaming, and the look on your face when you saw us coming was priceless." Apollo laughed.

"I wish I could see it again." Aphrodite said dreamily.

"You can." Hephaestus said as he came limping out from behind a shrub wall, "I installed Hephaestus cams all over the garden. You can watch it again, and again, and again. In fact, I'm planning on airing it on Hephaestus TV."

Hermes frowned, "All right, fine, you got me, just don't air it over Olympus, let me save some of my pride."

Artemis grinned, "To late. Hephaestus aired it live over Olympus. Now all of the gods and nymphs have seen you screaming like a baby."

"Oh, and by the way, you're my servant for the next five hundred years." Apollo grinned.

Hermes frowned, "Technically I didn't run out. I never left the garden."

Now it was Apollo's turn to frown, "Oh please, I saw you running; you would have run out screaming had we not capture you."

Hermes shrugged, a cocky grin plastered onto his face, "But I didn't run out. So I'm not your servant."

"Well I'm certainly not being your servant." Apollo said crossing his arms over his chest.

Artemis shook her head, "Neither of you won nor lost so you can forget about the whole thing."

Aphrodite nodded, "Yea, Auntie Hestia made pumpkin gobs, let's go get some and enjoy the rest of Halloween."

Apollo nodded, "Sure, truce Hermes?"

Hermes nodded and shook his head, "Truce. Happy Halloween bro."

Apollo grinned, "Happy Halloween."

"You're gonna get it next year though."

* * *

**16 days til Halloween!**

**~ArtemisFrimm (bwahahahaha)  
**


	5. Hestia's Halloween

Mkay, yes I know I suck at updating :( What I'm thinking about doing is continuing these fics next year, so that gives me more time to prepare more ;)

Summary: Ares decides to help Hestia as she decorates for Halloween, Ares trys convincing her that 'cute' is not how Halloween works. Slight oocness but I wanted to make it fluffy k+ very cutesy friendship stuff, enjoy...

* * *

Hestia enjoyed Halloween. She actually like fall as a whole. She loved the color of the trees as they changed, the smell of the dead leaves as they fell to the earth, the warmth of the fireplace, and she especially loved the fall decorations.

It was the day before Halloween and she had just finished decorating her apartment. Smiling, carved pumpkins sat next to each other on her porch, she had a small scarecrow in her yard, and she had a leafy wreath hanging on her door. She breathed in a satisfactory sigh and prepared to go inside and prepare herself some hot apple cider and a pumpkin gob she had made earlier.

Right as she was walking through her door, she heard a loud, rude voice behind her say, "What kind of decorations are these?"

Hestia turned around to find her nephew Ares eyeing her decorations with disgust. Hestia arched an eyebrow in question, "Do you have a problem with my décor Lord Ares?"

Ares frowned, "Yea, I do actually."

Hestia sighed, "Well what problems do you find Lord Ares."

Ares grinned, it wasn't a pleasant grin, more of a grimace, but he continued, "Aunt Hestia, no offense but these decorations are lame. Where's all of the scariness? Halloween's coming up and you probably have the least scary apartment out of all of the gods!"

Hestia frowned, "I do have a scarecrow." She pointed out calmly.

"Just because it has the word 'scare' in it doesn't make it scary. I mean that _thing_ can't even scare a dumb crow away! No way could it scare an immortal god."

Before Hestia could protest, a small crow landed on her scarecrow's head and started pulling the straw out of its hat. She frowned, "Did it ever occur to you that maybe I didn't want a scary house for Halloween? Maybe I'm just fine with my house the way it is."

Ares shook his head, "No, sorry Aunt Hestia but that ain't gonna cut it. Your house is going to be scary even if I have to help you make it scary myself."

"You would do that?" Hestia asked genuinely surprised.

Ares shrugged, "Sure why not? My date with Aphrodite doesn't start until nine, so that gives us roughly seven-and-a-half hours to change this house from funny to frightening."

Hestia nodded, "Alright fine, but we get to keep the scarecrow. Deal?"

Ares shrugged, "Sure why not, we'll just tweak it a bit. Now let's start creepifying your house."

"Okay, what do we do first?" Hestia asked.

Ares looked around for a moment before responding, "Let's start with your pumpkins; smiley faces are very little kiddish, so how would you like your pumpkins; one eating the other, or one throwing up pumpkin guts?"

Hestia frowned, "That's disgusting!"

"That's the point." Ares groaned, "Now pick one."

Hestia frowned, "Ugh, just surprise me I guess. But you have to carve them."

Ares shrugged, "Whatever, it shouldn't take too long."

While Ares carved the pumpkins, Hestia busied herself with making fresh hot apple cider. She had just finished adding the cinnamon when Ares walked in announcing that the pumpkins were carved.

"Great I can't wait to see them." Hestia said handing him a mug of cider, "Here, have some cider."

Ares nodded, "Thanks."

Hestia frowned, "The mighty Lord Ares actually saying 'thanks'? What has the world come too?"

"Ha ha. Very funny, now don't go spreading that around Olympus or I'll tic-tac your apartment and smash your pumpkins." Ares joked.

Hestia laughed, "Oh my, I'm so scared. But if it means that much to you, I promise I won't tell anyone."

Ares nodded, "You know, your pretty o.k. for a goddess."

Hestia smiled, "I'll take that as a compliment. So what's next?"

Ares thought for a moment, "We're going to need lots of spider webs, tombstones, skeletons, dry ice, and blood."

"Fake blood, right?"

Ares hesitated, "Yea, sure."

Hestia rolled her eyes, "It'd better be fake, now when am I going to see your infamous pumpkin?"

Ares grinned, "Not until it's dark, I want it to be a surprise."

The two finished up their cider, and got to work spookifying Hestia's house. They applied fake cobwebs to her shrubs and trees, tinted her windows black, and added tombstones with ridiculous names on them to her front yard. They got rid of her corn stalks and even replaced her autumn wreath with a leaf of bones.

"These bones _are _fake right?"

"Sure."

The two continued working until her house was almost unrecognizable save for the scarecrow that was still in her yard.

Ares sighed, "That scarecrow is not going to work."

Hestia bit her lip in thought, "I don't want to get rid of it though."  
Ares thought for a moment, "I've got an idea," He walked over to the scarecrow and flipped his mouth upside down so it looked like more of a grimace than a smile. He then pulled out a knife from his pocket and, using some string, he tied the knife into the scarecrow's hand making it look like some sort of crazy killer.

Hestia laughed, "That's great! I love it Ares, thank you so much!"

Ares nodded, the trace of a smile tugging on his mouth, "Good, it looks so much better this way."

Hestia smiled, "So when do I get to see your pumpkin again?"

Ares shrugged, "As soon as the sun goes down."

Hestia frowned, "Well while we wait for sundown, why don't we go inside? I have pumpkin gobs made and we could have some more cider to warm up."

Ares nodded, "That sounds great."

The two ate in silence and around 7:30, Ares stood up, "Stay here until I tell you to come out, I'm gonna get the pumpkins lit."

Hestia nodded and waited a few minutes before Ares came back inside, "It's ready."

Hestia followed him out the door and looked back to her porch. There lit, was a pumpkin grinning with what looked like a pumpkin gob in its mouth, next to it were her two smiling pumpkins from earlier. Hestia looked at Ares, "I thought you said smiley faces were little kiddish?"

Ares shrugged, "Yea, well, you seemed kind of offended when I said that so I kept them."

Hestia smiled, "Thank you Ares, for everything. This has actually been fun."

Ares shrugged, "Well, yea, don't get used to it. Happy Halloween."

Hestia grinned, and she could've sworn she saw Ares smile as well, "Happy Halloween Ares."

* * *

6 days til Halloween

~ArtemisFrimm (mwahahahaha)


	6. Happy Halloween

**Eek! Ok, First of all, this is my last Halloween fic for this year, I originally intended on doing more than just this, but I'm considering maybe creating more for next year, but as of now, this story is complete ;) Secondly, I'd just like to thank all of you who have reviewed, favorited, etc... Though I didn't get as much feedback as I had hoped for, it still made me extremely happy knowing that you all have liked this :) Now, I have promised most of my reviewers for a PercyxArtemis chapter because some of you who have read my other two stories, Bows, Swords, Lightning Bolts, Oh my! were hoping for PercyxArtemis. I'm not going to put any PxA in my other stories, so I made this chapter for all you you Pertamis lovers :) So, on my Halloween gift to you ;)  
**

**Summary: While hunting monsters on Halloween, Artemis ends up getting trapped in a mall with not only a monster, but the legendary son of Poseidon as well. How will they survive? Read to find out. T for mmm, more violent stuff, romance ensured ;)  
**

**Once again thank you all so much for your support throughout this entire process. I'll be updating part two of B,S,LB, part 2 sometime in the upcoming month, so once again, I hope you all enjoy and Happy Half-Blood Halloween**

**~ArtemisFrimm (mwahahahahaha)  
**

* * *

Artemis hated Halloween. It always made her feel uneasy, every year it seemed to get worse. It wasn't that she was scared, oh no, she just hated how Halloween was always the one day of the year where monsters went crazy, they became rash, demonic. They would attack anyone, at anytime, anywhere. They were at their most ruthless on this night, so that meant that she had to try to hunt all of them down on Halloween otherwise they would hunt everyone else down.

What agitated her most about Halloween was the fact that not only did she have the monsters to worry about; she also had to worry about not accidentally mistaking a human as a monster. It disturbed her the way they acted on this night. They would go to their parties dressed as Zeus knows what, and they would drink and… It was on this night that humans went wild as well, and that didn't help Artemis out very much.

That was why Artemis was now walking along the streets of some New York town, trying to stay as invisible to the humans as possible and tracking a monster. As far as she could tell, the monster was powerful; she assumed it was a Changer based on the way the power kept fluctuating. She had been tracking it nearly the whole evening and was beginning to become annoyed by it. As she walked along, she would pass small children dressed as little witches or characters from movies, or teenage girls dressed in skimpy costumes. She continued walking along unnoticed by everyone. It wasn't until she reached the local mall did she run into trouble.

A group of older teenage kids, probably around seventeen or eighteen, were sitting in front of the deserted mall drinking. They were all dressed like zombies from some horror movie and they slightly unnerved Artemis, especially the one that was staring at her with dark eyes, for some reason, under all of the makeup, he looked oddly familiar. Unfortunately the Changer seemed to be coming from inside the mall. Before Artemis could think of another way to get in, one of the teenagers walked towards her, the others too drunk to get up. His drunk, uneven footsteps reminded her slightly of a zombie.

One boy grinned wickedly as a spat a brown glob of what Artemis assumed was tobacco in front of her, "Well, well, well, what a pretty little kiddy we gots us here. What are you s'posed to be kiddy, Robin Hood?" his words were slurred as he spoke.

"You are not supposed to be here." Artemis said as she influenced the mist, she had assumed that since the teenagers were drunk they would be easily manipulated by the mist, but it seemed to just make them more agitated.

The boy reached out and snatched her arm, twisting it in a painful position that most mortals wouldn't be able to do, especially while drunk. "You don't dare tell us what to do little girl." His rancid breath was hot in her ear, and Artemis tried not to gag.

She took in a deep breath and relaxed slightly, causing the boy holding her to relax. Twisting violently, Artemis plunged her elbow into his stomach, causing the boy to double over in pain.

"You rotten little whore! You'll pay for that!" the boy swore as he pulled out a large cleaver, stained with what Artemis could only assume was blood.

Artemis drew her bow, but before she could shoot, the boy's eyes grew wide and he exploded into ashes. Artemis then realized where she recognized the boy from; Percy Jackson.

Percy grimaced as he sheathed Riptide. "I thought I recognized you. You look older though."

Artemis shrugged, it was true, in order to get into the more, 'explicit' parties in search of monsters, she had to be a little bit older than 12. "Monster hunting." She answered simply. "What are you doing here?"

Percy shook his head as he glanced back at the other teenagers who were all unconscious, and would probably be very hung over in the morning. "The camp sent me to watch over some demigod they found in New York. He's a son of Dionysus."

"Of course."

Percy grinned and nodded, "Yea, I suspected that one of his buddies was a monster, but I wasn't sure. The alcohol kind of made it hard to tell."

"I see. So you were sent to watch after them?"

"Yup, it was hard trying to stay focused while pretending to be a stoned teenager." Percy rolled his eyes.

"I imagine it would be; its scary enough seeing the effects of alcohol on a god, let alone on an under-aged mortal with friends who carry around large butcher knives." Artemis said honestly.

Percy nodded. He was beginning to feel a little awkward; he hadn't had a one-on-one conversation with the goddess of the moon since he was in 8th grade.

"Well I should probably get going; I have a monster to try to catch." Artemis said sounding bored.

Before Percy realized what he was doing he said, "Did you need any help?"

Artemis examined him for a moment; he had definitely grown since 8th grade. He was no longer the scrawny, unsure demigod he had been back then. Artemis sighed, "I suppose I would appreciate a little help. The more help means the sooner we get done and the sooner I can head back to Olympus."

Percy nodded, "Great, but how do we get in?"

Artemis arched an eyebrow at him. Walking over to the door casually and placed her palm on the door, in a short moment, the door opened as if the mall were open for service.

Careful not to make any noise, the two walked in. They hadn't walked but a few feet into the mall when the door behind them slammed shut and locked into place. Percy could tell that Artemis was frowning even though it was dark. "Well that is not supposed to happen."

Percy swallowed nervously, "What kind of monster is it anyway?"

"We are looking for a Changer; it is a newer type of demon that changes into what ever sees it is scared of."

Percy sighed, "Great."

The two continued walking through the mall in mutual silence. Percy had Riptide out and Artemis had her bow drawn, both waiting anxiously for any signs of the monster.

Percy couldn't help but feel unnerved. The entire mall had been decorated from the Zombie-Fest that had occurred there earlier during the day; spider webs were everywhere, and a large graveyard was in the center of the mall. Masks and mannequins designed to look like serial killers were all over the mall, a large maze of mirrors spiraled around the entire mall, and apparently whoever worked there forgot to turn off the fog machines, making the place very, very eerie. It also didn't help that the mall was dark and there was nobody there.

"Scared?" Artemis joked.

"No, it's just that, well I'm just slightly-"

"Unnerved?" Artemis answered for him.

Percy nodded, and before he could say anything else, a loud clatter came from inside the maze.

Percy could tell Artemis had jumped slightly by the unnaturally loud noise. Percy swallowed slowly, "Well, I guess we know where to start looking." He was surprised by how much his voice shook.

Artemis nodded then smirked, "Don't worry Perseus; it's just a little demon, nothing to be… Unnerved, about."

Percy glared at her but Artemis ignored it as she walked confidently toward the maze.

The inside of the maze was freaky. Every wall was made of a full length mirror and every passage way was filled with fog. The silence engulfed the two again as they continued on through the maze. Percy followed Artemis and couldn't help but notice that she looked even prettier than she had when she was in twelve-year-old form. Her long auburn hair curled in her ponytail, and she was a bit taller. His relationship with Annabeth had hit rock bottom after some ridiculous fight for the umpteenth time and he had ended it, it was too much drama.

Lost in his own head as he continued to admire the goddess, Percy didn't realize that Artemis had stopped and he ended up plowing into her. She elbowed him in the stomach and put a finger to her lips. Percy listened for a moment and felt his stomach drop at the noise he heard.

He heard someone muttering to himself, the voice sounded half mad. Listening more intently he could just barely make out what it was saying:

"_Whats is we going to do to these pretties hmmm? We'll eats them! That's what we do to pretty little mortals."_

Suddenly he heard what sounded like a knife or sword being unsheathed and in an instant, the sound of something being split and splattered on the floor followed by the sound of a high-pitched screaming.

Percy felt his heart stop and suddenly he realized that something was grabbing his arm. Percy yanked my arm free of the grasp and he could hear Artemis gasp. It had been her holding his arm.

Before he could comprehend what had happened, whatever had been talking earlier suddenly let out a violent snarl and began running in their direction. Artemis drew her bow and he held up Riptide, prepared to strike down the gnarly creature. The snarling grew louder and louder before instantly, it stopped. The two were left in a very loud silence that made Percy's heart race.

Percy moved to lower his sword but Artemis stopped him, "It's still-"

Before she could finish, a large butcher's knife was thrown from out of nowhere and stuck in the wall less than an inch away from Artemis's face. "Run." Artemis breathed, and she and Percy raced through the maze in the opposite direction of which the knife came.

Percy had to push himself in order to try to keep up with the goddess. Suddenly she stopped and Percy ran into her, knocking both of them onto the ground.

Artemis swore under her breath and she shoved Percy off of her, "We have to get out of this maze so we can't be ambushed."

Percy nodded, and followed her as they tried to weave their way through the maze.

After a while of silent wondering, they finally found their way out of the maze. "Well that was fun, but I think I'm ready to leave now." Percy muttered.

Artemis smirked, but Percy could see that she was slightly shaken as well, "Aw, is the heroic son of Poseidon scared of a little demon."

Percy scowled at her but said nothing. Artemis smiled, but it quickly melted away, "I suppose we'll have to lure the Changer out of the maze."

"How are we supposed to do that?" Percy asked irritably.

Artemis frowned for a minute, and then let out a blood-curdling scream that caused the hairs on the back of Percy's neck to stand on end. "What in Hades was that for?" Percy hissed.

Artemis smirked, "The Changer feeds off of fears, so if I seem scared than that will attract it to us."

Percy nodded, "Well make it seem like you're scared without screaming. I'd rather _not_ go deaf."

Artemis smirked, "Fine."

Percy sighed and began admiring the decorations of a nearby window. A wax zombie-like bride was holding a knife in one hand and in the other was the severed head of her husband. Percy looked over to see Artemis looking at a brutal werewolf mannequin chewing on the severed arm of a person, while the arm-less mannequin of the person lay on the ground with slash marks through its stomach, a horrified look on its face.

Percy noticed a fake severed arm on display and quietly picked it up. As silently as possible, he crept behind Artemis and quickly tapped her on the shoulder with the fake arm. Artemis jumped and turned to glare at him.

Percy smirked; _payback_. "So, Lady Artemis, what is it that you're scared of?" Percy asked innocently.

Artemis narrowed her eyes, "I fear nothing."

Percy frowned, "But everyone fears something."

Artemis frowned, "Not me."

Percy shrugged, "Fine, don't tell me."

Artemis rolled her eyes at him, and went back to looking at the gruesome displays. Percy went over to join her, "So what do you think that Changer was doing to that person?"

Artemis turned to him, and Percy hadn't realized that he had moved in a lot closer to the goddess than he intended, there was hardly any space between them. Artemis frowned and took a step away from him, "There was no one with the Changer; it was probably just trying to manipulate us, scare us into stupidity so it can kill us and eat us."

"So you don't think it was actually chopping someone's head off?" Percy asked casually.

Artemis's frowned, "That's what you thought it was doing?" she asked, her voice coming out as barely louder than a whisper.

Percy nodded, "You haven't seen any horror films have you?"

Artemis shook her head, she had always found horror films too, disturbing, for her to watch. Her brother had forced her to watch part of one at one point, but she left right before the main character walked into the house where a murderer with a mask and mechanics overalls waited for her with three dead bodies. She shivered slightly remembering how haunted her dreams were for about a year after that.

Percy smirked, so much for her fearing nothing. "Yea, in most horror films, that's the noise of someone chopping someone's head off."

Artemis's face had grown slightly pale, and she opened her mouth to speak before a loud scream was heard coming from the opposite end of the mall.

Artemis jumped and grabbed Percy's arm again, she really wanted to get out of this stupid mall.

Percy could vaguely feel Artemis shaking as she held his arm, but other than that, he felt completely numb. His heart was pumping at a million miles an hour and he felt as though all of the blood had left his body.

Suddenly he heard Artemis speak, her voice was very shaky and Percy could tell that the scream had startled her as much as it had startled him, "You did that on purpose didn't you?"

Percy shook his head unable to speak. Instinctively, Percy wrapped his arm around the goddess to stop her from trembling. Artemis stiffened and seemed to realize how tightly she was holding onto Percy and she moved away from him.

She was grateful for the dark so Percy couldn't see her blush.

Percy let out a nervous laugh, "Well I guess the Changer's trying to lure us to him now."

Artemis nodded, "Well I suppose we should try to find it." Her voice was still quiet but not nearly as shaky as it was before.

Percy silently agreed and followed her as she led them in the direction of the scream.

An awkward silence surrounded the two of them as they continued to walk through the moonlit mall. The milky light of the moon made it semi-easy to see what was around them in the mall, so it surprised the two of them when suddenly they could see nothing.

"Is it just me or did it just get almost impossibly dark?" Artemis asked irritably.

"It's very dark." Percy answered monotonously, tonight was really beginning to suck.

Suddenly a loud creaking noise sounded within the darkness and suddenly Percy heard Artemis gasp and felt her grab his hand.

"What's wrong?" he asked concerned.

"Something just grabbed my leg!"

Percy frowned and brushed her knuckles with his thumb. He heard Artemis sigh, and felt her lean against him, resting her head on his shoulder. Percy couldn't help but feel his pulse rush with the contact.

"This night has been way to stressful." Artemis murmured.

Percy smiled and laid his head on top of hers, "Well let's go find us a Changer so we can get the heck out of here."

Artemis nodded. Though she didn't really want to, she pulled herself away from the son of Poseidon. She didn't know what was getting into her; she was usually so anti-male. She had built up walls against the male species, and only one other male had managed to tear those walls down, and that was Orion, and it had taken her months to trust him, yet in just a few hours, Percy had gotten her to trust him completely. She didn't know why, but she felt safe when she was with him. It was, odd, yet Artemis found that she kind of liked the feeling.

She let him guide her through the darkness, and although she liked the feeling of him guiding her, she was relieved to finally be able to see.

The two walked in silence for a while, and for some reason Percy was beginning to feel antsy. He knew he shouldn't, but he couldn't help but feel a strong sense of longing for the goddess of the hunt. She was calm, yet trusted him completely, unlike Annabeth who had freaked out because he had forgotten to answer one text message from her, and she had found him hanging out with Rachel at one point. Artemis was mature, yet still joked around, and she didn't act like a know-it-all the whole time. Percy didn't know why, but when they were in the darkness, when Artemis had grabbed his hand, he had a strong urge to kiss her. He didn't know what had possessed him to feel that way; he just felt the want to kiss her. He had never felt that same want with Annabeth.

Suddenly Percy noticed that Artemis was talking to him, her face was full of concern, "Percy, are you alright?"

Although he knew it was wrong, Percy leaned down and kissed the virgin goddess lightly on the lips. It was a small, soft kiss, so light that Artemis at one point even wondered if the kiss had actually happened at all.

When Percy pulled away from Artemis, he knew that the kiss was probably one of the biggest sins he had ever committed, and he was fully prepared for Artemis's vengeance. He was, however, surprised to find that she didn't look mad, confused maybe, but also happy, possibly even slightly relieved.

The two stood in silence for a moment, staring at each other, not sure what to do. It was Percy who broke the silence, "I'm so sorry, I, I uh, I probably shouldn't have, I'm so-"

He was cut off as Artemis pressed a finger lightly to his lips, she gave him a flicker of a smile before she leaned her forehead against his, no words were spoken, but none needed to be said; it was clear by her reaction that she felt the same way about him that he felt about her.

The two staid there in silence for a while before Artemis pulled herself away from him, "We should probably try to find that Changer." She murmured.

Percy nodded, and took her small, soft hand into his, lacing his fingers with hers. Artemis smiled, and followed him as they made their way towards the Changer.

The two walked for a bit farther when they realized that they were stepping in something wet and sticky. Artemis frowned and crouched down; she lightly dipped her finger in whatever the liquid was. When she stood up, her face was very concerned.

"What is it?" Percy asked, although he was almost afraid to find out.

Artemis took a shaky breath, "It's blood, and it's fresh."

Percy felt his body go numb again, this Changer was way too good at manipulating the mist for Percy's liking.

Artemis looked at him, "We must be getting close."

Percy nodded and the two walked in silence through the blood-drenched hallway. Suddenly they heard the evil voice speak again.

_"Well listen to this. Two beautiful childrens entering my domains. They tries to leads us out of the maze, but we leads them right to us don't we." _ The voice stopped for a moment, before it continued, _"Which one shalls we eats first?"_ a gagging noise was made before the voice spoke again, _"You thinks so? Well if that's whats you thinks, we'll eats the pretty one first."_

Suddenly Percy felt Artemis leave his side; a small gasp had escaped her lips before she disappeared. Percy ran forward towards the sound of the voice and found a small Golem-like creature holding a large butcher's knife as he circled Artemis who was in chains that looked as though they were burning her. She was crying and struggling, desperately trying to free herself.

Percy felt like he was going to be sick. He ignored the feeling though and pulled out Riptide, he was just about to strike when off to the left of him, the gagging sound was heard again, and in a flash, the Golem-Changer turned around and hurled the butcher's knife at him. It lodged itself in Percy's shoulder. Percy winced slightly, but pulled the blade out with ease, no blood was flowing from the wound, that was a positive aspect of bathing in the Styx.

The Changer glared at him, but looked slightly scared, _"Oh, whats do I do nows? Oh he's bathed in the Styx! Helps me! Please please!" _the creature fell to the blood-soaked ground weeping, and begging for mercy.

Percy grimaced and stabbed him through with Riptide. The creature disappeared in a flash of ashes and Percy ran over to where Artemis was still struggling to free herself from the chains.

Percy used Riptide and slashed through the chains with ease, and he helped the goddess up. She was shaking and still crying so Percy held her close to him and kissed her hair. After a few minutes, Artemis had calmed down slightly, "Did you destroy the brain?"

He pulled her away from him to look her, "What brain?"

Artemis pointed to a blob on the floor. Percy pulled himself away from her and walked over to the blob with his sword drawn.

What Percy saw almost caused him to gag, a grayish, bloody brain lay pulsing on the blood-stained floor. Artemis walked over to him, "That's what has been controlling the Changer. At birth, their brains are taken from their heads to control the Changer body, that way, if a Changer dies, they can still come back with the same memories as the old one.

Percy grimaced and rammed his sword through the center of the brain. Suddenly violent flashes of horrifically tragic events flashed through his mind, he saw a young girl being stalked and murdered, and an elderly man beaten to death by his son; he saw the Twin Towers on 9/11. Percy let out a scream and felt himself briefly pass out.

When regained consciousness, he found himself lying on the ground with his head in Artemis's lap. He could tell she was shaken. Before she could even ask, he stood up, "I'm fine." She nodded, and he helped her up.

He let out a sigh, "How about we get out of here?" Artemis nodded and accepted his hand as he led her out of the mall.

Once outside of the mall, Percy let go of her hand. The drunken teenagers were still unconscious and lying on the sidewalk. Someone had come by and had drawn mustaches on each of them with a permanent marker.

Percy laughed, "Well I should probably be getting these guys back home and take the one back to camp."

Artemis nodded, "Yes, I should probably get back to Olympus."

Percy nodded, and leaned in and kissed her once again. This kiss was much more passionate than the last, and Artemis kissed him back. Before the kiss could get any deeper, Artemis pulled away from him, "Happy Halloween Percy." And with a wink and a flash of silver light, she was gone.

Percy smiled to himself, "Yea, Happy Halloween."

* * *

**HAPPY HALLOWEEN!**

**~ArtemisFrimm(bwahahahaha)  
**


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